A communication professor known for conspiracy theories has stirred controversary at Florida Atlantic University with claims that last month's Newtown, Conn., school shootings did not happen as reported -- or may not have happened at all.

Moreover, James Tracy asserts in radio interviews and on his memoryholeblog.com. that trained "crisis actors" may have been employed by the Obama administration in an effort to shape public opinion in favor of the event's true purpose: gun control....

On Monday, the website Global Research posted a timeline written by Tracy which purports to show how federal and local police agencies, abetted by "major media," conspired early in the Sandy Hook investigation to constuct a scenario pointing to Lanza as " the sole agent of the massacre" when others may have been involved.

In one of his blog posts, "The Sandy Hook School Massacre: Unanswered Questions and Missing Information," Tracy cites several sources for his skepticism, including lack of surveillance video or still images from the scene, the halting performance of the medical examiner at a news conference, timeline confusion, and how the accused shooter was able to fire so many shots in just minutes.

Now, I know that online polls are about as far from scientific as it's possible to get, but I was expecting a little more scorn to show up in the Sun-Sentinel's survey. A majority of voters think Professor Tracy has some swell ideas:

And I know I ought to resist nutpicking, but I'm struck not so much by the percentage of commenters who think the professor is on to something (not quite half in the Fox thread, an apparent majority in the Sun-Sentinel thread), but by how well developed Newtown trutherism is already. A sample from from Fox:

... The fact is, we are all to quick to blame in on an autistic kid when there are hardly NO witness (one boy and they won't ask him what he saw) no video surveillance of the office confirming one armed man, no mention the man in black and camo that was arrested, let alone the 3 rd they have police taking in custody from helicopter footage. No answer as to how this autistic kid suddenly became a sharp shooter, and why he would worry about concealing his face if he was just going to commit suicide. How easy it would be for a trained man to take advantage of this kid, leave no witnesses, and get off scott free....

The Feds continue to blame the shootings by someone using an assault rifle, yet the media for several days after were still saying that the rifle was never taken from the car according to the police and the only guns found inside the school were 4 handguns. Since that time they have stopped talking about that and just blame assualt rifles.

****

...Some of the things mentioned in hoax articles were things I had thought myself a few days after the shooting. I still can't understand the confusion over a gun; I wondered what happened to the men they apprehended in the woods; I heard that he shot his father initially; I never could understand with all the helicopters why we didn't see the surviving children being brought from the building. It does go on and on.

Some things, I rationalized to myself that the media has a sense of decency, to explain why we didn't see any of the bodies removed, why we didn't see more grieving parents etc....

****

Vice Principal Natalie Hammond was shot and survived. One would think the media would be salivating for her story. Where is she?? I can see the news headline: "sandy hook survivor relives horrific massacre". Where is she??

****

A crap load of fake actors that have been caught changing their story during different "interviews"

A reported DEAD principle who was quoted the same day in the local new's paper.

A reported busted computer, demolished in a hurry, yet destroyed so well the feds cant restore any information from it. Like the 9/11 black boxes?

A "claimed' dead woman named Nancy Lanza that we never seen removed from the home, no ambulance, nothing, who was shot in the face with a 22 cal bullet.

A original audio of the police scanner where they repeatedly refer to a second person, two shadows, "their coming" "one suspect prone"

A set of "ear plugs"

A person interviewed who claimed the suspect wore a mask.

A person interviewed who claimed the school nurse described the expression on the suspects face?

A major block buster movie, filmed well in advance that contains a map that was purposely changed to include coincidentally the same school name that this Hollywood set style drama, trauma played out.

More....

Public Policy Polling, are you paying attention to this? I'd love it if you'd poll this somewhere. You've done a public service by reminding us how many Republican voters still don't believe the president is a citizen. What about this? How many crazies are there. Are they Alex Jones loons or Fox News loons? How absurd are we?

****

UPDATE: Also relevant to this discussion, I guess, is Alex Jones's appearance on the Piers Morgan show last night. "'Deport Piers Morgan' Creator Flips Out On Morgan's Show" is Mediaite's headline; to me it looks as if Jones is faking it, a pro wrestler of conspiratorialism who slickly and professionally attacks his rival using carefully culled and scripted talking points, including the "1776" bit he does at about 2:17, reaching down deep into his chest-voice, all while feeling no actual emotion beyond "What the hell, this pays the bills." Limbaugh, I think, genuinely despises his enemies; Beck sincerely seems to slip into his own wild theories; Savage seems genuinely full of contempt and O'Reilly genuinely full of arrogance. I don't believe this guy's shtick for a second.

So forget what I wrote above. I don't just want Newtown trutherism polled -- I want all of the gunners' conspiracy theories polled. Obama wants total disarmament! It's all a UN conspiracy! It's modeled on Hitler! And on and on. What percentage of Americans believe all this? We should find out.

Communications is where they put people who don't "fit" in a real philosophical doctrine, kinda' like psychology. (The MS is for Mad Scientist)

On one hand, Steve, while I've long held exception to your dismissive contempt for those who question authority, seeing it as it were as indicative you have "drank the kool-aid", bought the bullshit, yet on the other hand we have Alex Jones, who is as on par with those who want answers as these fracking gun nuts, these "Seconders", are to the old homie with a deer rifle amd revolver tucked away in their bedroom closet.

The whole Tracy and etcetera "conspiracy" theory bears an eerie and disgusting resemblance to Holocaust denial. "The gas was just to disinfect the mattresses. The people died of natural causes. And besides there were actually only 12 of them.The whole holocaust 'myth' is just an attempt to justify the bombing of Dresden." etcetera etcetera,

So to sum up, nobody really got killed in Newtown. The dead people were just actors faking it. Besides, they weren't really there. And anyway, their murder was carried out by U.S. Government agents.

Peoples,Let's not get too carried away by executing the Prof before he has a fair trial.As I understand it 'communications' is the academic way of saying PR specialist a subset of mass psychology. And yes there are some statistical predictions that can be made … responses to stimuli i.e. words , manner of delivery etc.

It is reasonable that his results maybe as he found them. What isn't said is *where* was his sample taken from? e.g. if he interviewed Fox audience or in a strongly Tea Bagger area then it *is* very believable.

Particularly if the questions asked are " given the following information .....radio scanner .... nurse said... that a second shooter is Very likely or definitely not true. Poll taking questions are often more of an art rather than a quantifiable science. They can be influenced by external factors unknown to the questioner. i.e. if someone a tea bagger/religious righter has just watched a Fox special (which they are inclined to believe because they identify with the basic bias of Fox) it is highly possible that his results could be as he depicts them.The question I would ask is prove your methodology and your anti bias techniques. In short I would want to read the data it's self and not believe an MSM journo unqualified in the field's interpretation (whose sole duty is to make a story that will get viewers) . MSM (fox) is selling ads not educational accuracy or integrity. Today they are largely mutually exclusive particularly in the USA media. As I've said before be skeptical VERY skeptical of generalised stats without peer review into the methodology. Besides I have it on very good authority that McSavaige and Tom Cruise (scientology) have not denied that the second shooter at hook Creek was associates of their savior alien. By the way I refute the notion that either Victor or myself were in any way involved either.! Well at least I have an alibi ( or will have if questioned ) ;-)See how easy it is to start a conspiracy or to load a statement. PS We're dealing with simplistic thinking emotional people here. And they are limited to any particular group or nation. Damn humans! good thing I'm an Ant.